|
 In documents unsealed on Friday by a U.S. Bankruptcy Court in
Springfield, Massachusetts, GT Advanced Chief Operating Officer
Daniel Squiller says Apple offered what would have been GT
Advanced's largest sale ever and then changed the terms of the
agreement after it was too late for the smaller company to pursue
other opportunities.
GT Advanced, a maker of sapphire furnaces that supplied sapphire
material to Apple for its smartphone screens, filed for Chapter 11
protection on Oct. 6 and refused to publicly explain why it had
imploded, citing confidentiality clauses in its Apple contracts.
The two companies later reached a deal to part ways and allow GT
Advanced to proceed with its bankruptcy, but Judge Henry Boroff
denied requests by the companies to keep some of the documents in
the case under seal.
In a deal struck last year, GT Advanced outfitted a plant owned by
Apple in Mesa, Arizona with furnaces that it would use to make
scratch-resistant sapphire exclusively for Apple.
"With a classic bait-and-switch strategy, Apple presented GTAT with
an onerous and massively one-sided deal in the fall of 2013,"
Squiller wrote.
In another document unsealed on Friday, Apple called GT Advanced's
accusations "scandalous and defamatory".
At the start of negotiations, Apple offered to buy 2,600 sapphire
growing furnaces from GT Advanced, which GT Advanced would operate
on behalf of Apple, the "ultimate technology client to land,"
according to Squiller.
"In hindsight, it is unclear whether Apple even intended to purchase
any sapphire furnaces from GTAT," he wrote.
[to top of second column] |
But after months of hard negotiating, Apple offered a deal under
which it would shift away economic risk by lending GT Advanced the
money to build the furnaces and grow the sapphire, and then sell it
exclusively to Apple for less than market value, Squiller wrote.
GT Advanced was effectively forced to accept the unfair deal in
October 2013 because its intense negotiations with Apple had left it
unable to pursue deals with other smartphone makers, he said.
"These statements are intended to vilify Apple and portray Apple as
a coercive bully," Apple said in its separate filing.
It said GT Advanced was eager to make a deal, and pointed to a jump
of over 20 percent in the shares of GT Advanced after it was
unveiled.
In November of last year, GT Advanced Chief Executive Officer Tom
Gutierrez told analysts on a quarterly conference call the company
was "very pleased" to have made the agreement to supply sapphire to
Apple.
(Reporting by Noel Randewich; Editing by Bernard Orr)
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
